Venice, Italy 20 1964

Robert Frank shot this piece, Venice, Italy 20, probably around the same time he was working on his book, *The Americans*. It's like a contact sheet, a series of images strung together, a whole experience compressed onto a single surface. You see these blurry crowds, dark interiors, boats floating on the water, and then domestic scenes. I get the sense that he’s not after a perfect picture. He’s not cropping. He's trying to just grab a bit of life, a little truth, a fleeting moment. I can imagine him wandering the streets of Venice, camera in hand, just snapping away, trying to capture the essence of the city. The red marks all over it really make it. They show you what Frank was thinking about. It’s like he's having a conversation with himself, circling, questioning, deciding what’s good, what’s not. He's saying, "Okay, this one’s got something." To me, that red marker is part of the picture; it's like a painter's mark-making. It's all just another way of seeing and thinking about how to make the most of an image.